


Birthday Years

by kdaisu



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: 3+1 fic, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Getting Together, Growing Up Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 10:49:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16196027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdaisu/pseuds/kdaisu
Summary: Love, for Soren, was something strange, almost undefinable. It was there throughout all his life, at yet he could never really seem to place when he felt it.* * *Or three of Soren's birthdays and one of Marcos.





	Birthday Years

Love, for Soren, was something strange, almost undefinable. It was there throughout all his life, at yet he could never really seem to place when he felt it.

* * *

It started when he was young, on his tenth birthday. He was just playing around with Claudia in the castle, living as young children often did. They were playing tag, and his sister was chasing him in the courtyard. Or she was. But when Soren turned around to taunt her, he couldn’t seem to find her.

“Claudia,” he called out, tracing his steps back, hoping to find her. He had to make sure she was okay, as an older brother and as a future crown guard. But mostly as an older brother.

She called back to him from behind one of the wagons, “Over here! I met someone.”

Of course she had, Claudia was always meeting new people. Having lived in the castle their entire lives with people constantly coming and going, it was a surprise to Soren that she still got excited over new people. He didn’t really like new people the way that his sister did.

Still, he followed her voice around the wagon, tilting his head at the new boy in front of him. He looked around Soren's age, with brown hair and eyes.

He turned to his sister first, ignoring the boy for the moment. “Don’t just run off. And remember what dad said about strangers?”

Claudia just rolled her eyes and pointed to the boy next to him. “This is Marcos, and he isn’t a stranger. He moved into the castle with his uncle yesterday! Isn’t that exciting?”

And yeah, that kinda was exciting. But still, who knew what this boy wanted? Soren looked back over to the boy, narrowing his eyes. “Marcos, huh? Why did you move here?”

Marcos looked like he would rather be anywhere else than under Soren's glare. “Um, my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to apprentice my uncle-he’s a blacksmith.”

Soren nodded along. Being a blacksmith was pretty cool, but being a crown guard was even better. He said as much to Marcos, who seemed to relax a bit. 

“Yeah, that is pretty cool. I think I would wanna be one if I could, but I doubt I’d be good enough.”

Soren loudly gasped at that. “No way! I bet you totally could be! We can practice together, you’ll see! You’ll be one of the best, right under me!”

Marcos eyes widened at this, a large smile growing on his face. “Really? Okay then, that sounds super cool.”

“It’s a deal then.” Soren held out a had to shake, Marcos taking it quickly and enthusiastically shaking it.

“Deal.”

“What about me?” Claudia suddenly but in, a pout on her face. “I wanna practice with you too!”

Soren pretended to think about it, just to tease his sister, before nodding his head in approval. “Sure, but first you have to beat us both in tag.”

With that he grabbed Marcos hand and they bolted off, laughing as Claudia chased them.

* * *

On his thirteenth birthday, Soren stood on the sparring field waiting for Marcos. After so many years they still practiced in secret, Marcos afraid to tell his parents that he didn’t want to be a blacksmith anymore.

“Good to see you, Marcos,” Soren called out when the other You’re late-again.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marcos waved him off before he began to stretch. “Got distracted. My uncle needed some help crafting today.”

Soren let out an irritated breath, rolling his eyes. “You know, that wouldn’t be an issue if you just  _ told them _ you wanted to join the castle guard.”

Pausing in his stretching, Marcos looked up with a glare. “I told you, it’s not that easy. Family expectations and all that, remember? Everyone in my family has been a blacksmith for generations. They’re not gonna just let me do something else. It’s about honor and respect.”

“I’m pretty sure that being a crown guard has a lot more honor and respect as a career than being a  _ blacksmith _ ,” Soren scoffed. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and Marcos was pinning him there, fist in his shirt.

“Shut up, there's nothing wrong with being a blacksmith!”

Soren's eyes widened in surprise, arms going up by his head in a surrendering motion. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” He waited for Marcos to calm down, but when he didn’t he went on, “I’m just saying that maybe they’ll be mad at first, but come on, they’d be way proud of you once you’re in the guard. And Being a blacksmith is cool-it really is! But you obviously don’t want that.”

Finally, Marcos relaxed, rolling off the other boy and laying down beside him, arm thrown over is face. 

“I know,” he sighed. “I know.” They were quiet for a moment, Marcos lost in his own head, and Soren content to wait until Marcos was ready to talk. “I’ll tell them tomorrow. Well, I’ll tell my uncle. I’ll have to write to my parents to tell them…” He turned his head to face the other and gave him a strained smile. “We should get to practicing.”

They sat up and took their stances before starting to spar. They had both gotten fairly good over the past few years, their moves quick and sure. By the end they once again called it a draw, as they did every day, and headed to put the swords away.

“Hey wanna have a sleepover,” Soren asked as the walked off the sparring field.

Marcos nodded as he wiped sweat from his face. “Sure. Just let me tell my uncle and grab some stuff. Unless you wanna sleep in my room?”

Shaking his head, Soren explained, “No, Claudia is gone to sleep at one of her friends houses, and my dad has a lot of meetings lately, so if we’re in my room we can stay up all night. Have a party, do stupid things that you normally refuse to do, goody-two-shoes.” He smirked as Marcos groaned and threw him a glare. 

“I will physically fight you-and I  _ will _ win.”

Laughing loudly Soren waved him off. “Sure, sure. I’ll see you soon?” He turned to check as Marcos nodded. 

“Be there as soon as I can.”

Soren ran to his room, throwing the door open and slamming it behind him. He began to clean up, barely giving a hello to his father.

“What’s got you in such a rush?” Viren asked, a small smile on his face. 

“What?” Soren looked up, taking a moment to process the words, before shaking his head. Marcos is coming over, and if it isn’t clean enough then he’ll insist on cleaning until it is. Say’s he was ‘raised responsible.’” Soren used his fingers for air quotes, pinching his face in disapproval. 

“Sounds…,” Viren thought for a second. “Exciting,” he finally said. “Just be sure to be good and get to bed at a respectable hour.”

“Of course, dad. When am I not good or responsible?” Viren gave him a blank stare before he turned and started walking out the door. 

“I’ll be back tomorrow, try not to burn anything while I’m gone.” With that he shut the door, not even waiting for a response.

“Okay,” Soren muttered to the empty room, trying not to feel too disappointed in his father's dismissal of him. He let out a big breath and shook his head, getting himself back to the task at hand.

He continued to clean his room until he heard a knock at the door. He went to check who it was, opening it to find Marcos with a big bag in hand.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked curiously, letting the other boy in. Marco immediately threw himself onto Soren's bed, flinging the bag at the blonde. 

“Check for yourself.”

Opening the bag, Soren’s smile brightened. “No way!” He dumped out the contents, a lot of cookies and other baked sweets, onto the bed. “How did you get these? They look pretty fresh!”

Marcos laughed and shrugged. “Benefits of being nice to the cooks.”

“You’re a legend,” Soren praised as he began to dive into the food. With a stuffed mouth, he asked Marcos, “So what should we do?”

Marcos chewed his lip and thought about it. “Dunno. Just eat and talk I guess?”

Soren shrugged in agreement. “Sounds good. Hey, did you hear about that new knight? The one who fell into the beehive?”

With that they continued talking through the night, until both had fallen asleep.

* * *

By his fifteenth birthday Soren had finally worn his dad down enough to give him his own horse to ride and train. It was pure white and fairly average in size, and Soren couldn’t be happier. Claudia said they should name him snow, or crystal, but Soren had immediately vetoed those. While they weren’t the worst names, they were common, and his horse was unique.

So Soren’s horse remained unnamed for the time being, and that was fine with Soren. He could wait as long as it took for a good name to come to him.

Hearing someone walk towards where he sat on the sparring field by himself, he looked up to find his best friend, Marcos. He waved a hello, which Marcos returned.

“Whatcha thinking about?” He asked once he’d walked close enough. 

“Nothing much,” Soren said, as he laid back on the grass. “Just thinking of names for my horse. None of them seem good enough.”

Marcos nodded along, taking a second to respond as he thought about it. “Why not ask Claudia? She’s good with names, right?”

“Normally, yeah,” Soren sighed. “But this time all the names she thinks of are so boring and common.”

“Ah.”

It was quiet for a moment as they both went through possible names.

“Turin,” Marcos suggested, and Soren gave him a weird look.

“What?”

“For the horse. Turin. It’s short and fierce, and I don’t hear it often.” He shrugged, face tinted red in embarrassment.

“Oh.” Soren thought about it a bit, then smiled broadly. “I like it. Turin it is!”

“Good, I’m glad I could help. Now can we spar or are we just not doing that today?” Marcos teased, holding out a hand to help Soren up.

“Actually,” Soren said as he took the hand and hoisted himself up, “I thought it would be cool if we wet for a ride today. Since I have Turin now and all.” He looked down at Marcos hopefully, pouting and widening his eyes to look sweeter.

Marcos laughed, but he agreed. “Tomorrow, though, we get back to work. Can’t have the future greatest member of the crown guard slacking off.”

“Why tha-”

“And I need your help to train, so you can’t slack off either.” There was a small silence, then Soren let out a loud sigh. Marcos began to laugh, shoving him softly. “Come on, that was good.”

“That was a lie is what it was,” he corrected, but Marcos had stopped listening.

They continued on, joking and shoving each other as they got to the stables, Soren getting out Turin and Marcos borrowing his uncles horse. Soren lead them in a race around the city, then on an adventure in the woods. They continued to ride until it began to get dark.

“I think we should head back,” Marcos called, slowing his horse down to a stop, waiting for Soren to do the same.

Riding slowly on their way back they talked. They didn’t really talk about something super important, but they did talk about all the little things about themselves that no one else seemed to care about. Things from how weird Soren thought sugar cookies were, to the random cat Marcos had seen the other day. The conversation was easy and comforting to them both in a way that they didn’t really think they could replace.

Once back to the castle they put the horses away and headed back inside.

“Today was fun,” Soren remarked, and the other had to agree. “We should go riding more often.”

“Maybe… Well, goodnight, Soren, see you tomorrow for practice.”

With that they parted, heading their own way to bed.

* * *

It was Marcos eighteenth birthday, and Soren was teasing him relentlessly about how he was an old man now. Despite how annoyed Marcos pretended to be, everyone knew it was a birthday tradition he enjoyed.

“So what are we doing today?” Soren asked as they made their way down some stairs. 

“Well, I was thinking we could just take a ride on our horses and maybe eat some lunch in the forest.” He held up a bag that looked pretty full, and Soren suspected it was the mentioned lunch. “Nothing big.”

“Anything you say,” Soren assured, following him out into the stables. They mounted their horses headed out of the city, Marcos leading the way. They rode around for a while, just exploring the woods like they’d done many times before. Around noon Marcos stopped in an open field surrounded by trees.

“Need help setting up anything?” Soren asked as he got off his horse, tying him to a stump and doing the same for Marcos.

Shaking his head, Marcos set the bag down and took out a blanket. He laid it out, before sitting down and gesturing for Soren to do the same. Getting the food out, he offered a sandwich to Soren along with a cookie and a bottle of water. “Here, I only brought the one kind cause I knew you would take forever to decide on your own.”

Soren scoffed at the insult, but took the food offered quickly. They began to eat in silence, preferring to just enjoy having a still moment to themselves. Despite the fact that they were often together, it always seemed to be busy and stressful with the need to become a crown guard by the end of the year. If they could make it they would be the youngest crown guards in the history of the kingdom.

But still, as Soren thought about it more and more, he found he really missed the simpler days were paring was a fun thing they practiced together and not a necessity to achieve their goals, and riding through the forest was an adventure and not a need for patrol.

“I miss it,” he found himself saying, looking towards Marcos next to him. “It was so great as kids, ya know? And now it’s all work, work, work, stress, stress, stress. It’s not fun.”

Marcos hummed his agreement, leaning back on his hands. “Yeah, I miss when we could sleep over or just disappear for a day and no one would notice or care.”

“Exactly. And just spending time with you where we don’t have to do anything, we can just be us? I miss that the most.” Soren blushed as he said this, looking up at the other shyly. Marcos was smart, probably smart enough to see what Soren was really trying to say if he wanted to.

His soft smile gave Soren hope that he did, and his words only confirmed that. “Yeah, me too. Ya know, you’re one of the most important people in my life-maybe the most important.”

“Me too.” Soren leaned closer and took a deep breath, quickly letting it out as he asked, “Can I kiss you?”

Marcos leaned forward as well, an ear splitting grin on his face. “If you don’t I might have to fight you.” He placed his hand on Soren's cheek, Soren copying the movement, and then they were kissing. And it was amazing. It felt strange at first, but also good and  _ right _ in a way.

When Soren pulled away, he had to let out a laugh. “Man, I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

“Yeah? Well you should have. I wouldn’t have minded.”

“Would you mind if I did it again?”

Marcos laughed, shook his head, and leaned in to kiss him again. “Do it whenever you like.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This took way too long and I really don't know how I feel about it. But I did my best and so I'm calling it good enough.
> 
> Feel free to talk to me on Tumblr at kdaisu
> 
> I'm always taking requests cause I'm a desperate hoe who doesn't have a life.


End file.
